Hacker News Reader

Comment by anu_gupta | Hacker News Reader

Given the prevalence of gun ownership and concealed carry permits in the US, this is a tragedy waiting to happen.

I have several rifles, including an AR-15 "assault" rifle and an Yugoslavian SKS with a bayonet and primer-fired grenade launcher on it[1]. I also have several handguns which I very often carry concealed.

I have no desire to shoot someone. I don't fantasize about power trip, fatalistic shooting sprees. I'm not afraid of being out in society. I don't pose in the mirror with my guns. I don't buy all the latest accessories I see in Call of Duty. I score way below average on all those psychopathy tests floating around the Internet.

So what's the catch? Nothing. I'm the same as the next dude.

1. Disclosure: I may end up using the grenade launcher some day. They have some great aftermarket grenade cages that happen to be compatible with tennis balls.

The average gun owner isn't necessarily relevant to shooting sprees. Shooting sprees are rare events. Those that commit them are NOT the typical gun owner.

Easy access to gun ownership prima facie facilitates shooting sprees by allowing the outliers easier access to guns.

Pointing this out is not necessarily an argument for gun ownership restrictions. I'm replying more specifically to the idea that your experience has any bearing on the relation between gun ownership laws and shooting sprees.

I think he's not worried about the intentions of people who carry, but rather what their reaction would be when they see someone pull out a gun-shaped object and point it at someone.

Ah. So you're suggesting that all gun owners are like you, and none would take the opportunity to live out their "hero moment"?

"I also have several handguns which I very often carry concealed."

I'm curious - why?

I don't generally carry around stuff that I don't think I'll need, particularly if those things have to go on my person (e.g. in my pockets) rather than in a bag that I can put down when I'm stationary.

It's good to have, "just in case". Carrying in comfort is an art form (aka "hard"). I live in an area where we have one law enforcement office, and law enforcement response times are ~20 minutes for violent crimes (I know this because I'm working on a data research project that produces statistics for local crimes, and it includes report vs response times).

Can you use it? How much training (approx hour count) is needed before you can really use the gun safely (i.e., shoot the bad guy instead of yourself or bystanders (which may be passive, inside their apartments, unaware of what's going on outside)).

That sounds like you're fantasizing about a power trip.

How do you square that with the fact that there are roughly 8 million concealed carry permit holders in America today?

Are they all on power trips?

http://www.gao.gov/assets/600/592552.pdf

permit to do something != doing it

However, I agree that's a LOT of people. Even if only half are holding at any given time, it's 1% of the population... Scary.

And yet, you missed his point:

If you heard a gunshot behind you, and you were carrying concealed, how would you react?

The tragedy isn't a shooting spree. The tragedy is a phone game causing someone's accidental death.

You obviously have never heard a gun being fired. No one would confuse a gunshot with a toy making sounds.

I take it you never played Assassins with squirt guns or clothes pins in college?

It looks like an awesome game (though I'm a bit worried about the $0.05/bullet thing), but it's also weird enough that I wouldn't play it in Boston or anywhere else where the populace panics over anything the least bit strange.

I mean, I'd have thought that Lite Brites were innocuous (only 4 weeks until that anniversary), so I can only imagine what one of the terrified might think of a real life assassin game....

Would you run around a city centre in the US shooting at people with something that looked like a gun?

Would you do it if you looked like me? I'm of Indian origin, and there's no fucking way I'd do that, not in the US.

I don't think anybody should do that, irrespective of race, religion or location. It's dangerous, and could end up getting you killed by someone who's carrying a real weapon.

And this is precisely my point, especially in the US where so many people carry guns, presumably to be able to stop people who look like they might be a threat.

But to imply that it wouldn't be even worse for someone who looks like they might be Middle-Eastern would be pretty disingenuous. I hope that's not what you mean.

I think you underestimate the intelligence of the average person that concealed carries.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com